Becoming a Multicultural Family Through Adoption

When you adopt across cultural and racial lines, your family and extended family is changed forever by becoming a multicultural family. What can you do to make the transition positive for your child and your family? My guests will be Chris Winston, author of A Euro-American on a Korean Tour at a Thai Restaurant in China, president of the Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network (KAAN), and mother of two adult children adopted from Korea; and Judy Stigger, an adoption therapist, Director of Professional Relations for Adoption Learning Partners, and mother of two African American children adopted domestically.

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Hit the Highlights

Is exposing your child to his birth culture really that important or is this another example of the pendulum having swung too far in one direction.
Homeland Visits/Tours: What age is best? Should you go in a group or solo.
How hard should you push your child to learn about his birth culture? Should you make her attend language school or culture camp if she doesn’t want to go?
Are positive racial stereotypes harmful to our kids?
How to find adult friends of your child’s ethnicity and is it worth all the bother?
When you adopt a child from Ethiopia (or Haiti, Liberia, etc.) what culture do you prepare him for: African American culture or Ethiopian? Racial identity versuscultural identity?
How do you handle perceived prejudice in the Ethiopian community towards African Americans?
How do you become a multicultural family when you adopt children domestically and from several different countries?
How do we help our children understand and cope with racism?